By HECTOR CASTRO, P-I REPORTER

Published 10:00 pm, Friday, May 5, 2006

A Seattle woman filed a lawsuit Friday against Redmond police for shooting her with a Taser following a traffic accident last year after they mistook her medical condition for drunkenness.

A Redmond police spokesman, Detective Brian Coats, referred all questions to the City Attorney's Office. A representative of the city could not be reached for comment.

Leila Fuchs contends in her lawsuit, filed in King County Superior Court, that officers used excessive force and were negligent in the application of the Taser, a device that delivers a painful, 50,000-volt jolt via two probes attached to wires.

The confrontation happened on July 10, 2005, at the intersection of 148th Avenue Northeast and Northeast Redmond Way.

In the court documents, Fuchs said she suffered a diabetic episode because of a low blood sugar level and rear-ended the car in front of her.

Police arrived and found a non-responsive Fuchs inside her locked vehicle. The officers assumed Fuchs was drunk because she would not obey their commands to open the door.

Officers responded by shattering her passenger side window and shooting her with a Taser when she did not exit the vehicle on her own.

The Taser probes lodged in Fuchs' arm and stomach, not far from her transplanted kidney, according to the court documents.

Fuchs screamed but was otherwise unable to respond. The officer who fired the Taser then reached over and unlocked the driver's side door.

Another officer dragged Fuchs from the car, put her on the ground and handcuffed her. The lawsuit contends that the officers then had to drag Fuchs to a patrol car, where they placed her in the back seat.

When Redmond firefighters arrived, they immediately recognized that Fuchs was diabetic and that she was suffering from a low blood sugar level. A portable breath test administered by police confirmed that Fuchs had not been drinking.

Tasers are widely used in law enforcement, both to incapacitate combative subjects and as a tool of pain compliance on subjects who will not obey the commands of officers.

Police praise Tasers as a less lethal method of controlling combative subjects and contend that they have reduced the number of injuries to both officers and civilians by cutting down on physical altercations between police and those they are trying to control.

Civil rights organizations, including Amnesty International, have called for more restrictions on the use of Tasers and believe police too often use them inappropriately. The agency also contends that more than 150 deaths have been linked to Taser applications. The manufactuer, Taser International, and police say the devices are safe.

An Auburn man died in July 2004 after a violent struggle with police that included use of a Taser.

During an inquest in March, the Medical Examiner's Office revealed that his death was caused by stress placed on his body from heavy cocaine use, a heart condition and the physical nature of the arrest. The Taser application was found not to be a direct cause of his death.